Aside from the type of structure and the materials used in construction, outdoor lighting is an important contributing factor to the overall image of a building. Façade lighting rounds off the architectural design and adds style and flair..
The great variety of available outdoor luminaires on offer give home owners the opportunity to be creative with light. Home outdoor lighting also has another benefit: it makes your home safer and acts as a deterrent for burglars.
Lighting should not cause insects and other animals to lose orientation or interfere with their ability to find food. Without insects, our lovely trees and flower beds would no longer be pollinated.
What can you do to make your garden insect and animal-friendly and still have beautiful lighting? One solution lies in choosing the right light colour.
1. How do I choose the right lighting for my home?
Outdoor lighting has so much more uses than just illuminating your garden or bringing light to your patio. You can choose low-key recessed or surface-mounted luminaires, or go for wall luminaires that highlight your façade with eye-catching light effects. Such light effects in particular, can bring life and style to the entrance to your home.
The more red components there are in the light, the less dangerous it is for creepy-crawlies. Gold (or amber) light is the answer – and it also has advantages for people. The warm white light feels like sunset, bringing warmth and relaxation to the garden at night. The colour temperature of gold light lies between 2,200 and 3,000 Kelvin. Have a look at our encyclopaedia of light if you want to learn more about colour temperature!
2. Lighting the façade
Wall luminaires are a great choice for lighting the outside of your home – as façade lighting or in the form of indirect, glare-free illumination of your entrance area. You can choose luminaires that suit the type of façade of your home. You can even be a bit creative in terms of style combinations. Traditional half-timbered houses, for example, can look great with modern LED façade lighting. There are various designs and models of outdoor wall luminaires to choose from: stylishly designed stainless steel spotlights are right on trend.
By the way, you can also have wall luminaire with replacement lenses for various beam angles. With these, you can adapt the lighting effect to your own expectations. The house number module is especially practical. It can be attached on the top or bottom of all Cone wall luminaires.
Many animals are nocturnal and move around their territory at night in search of food. Outdoor lighting can create corridors of light that cut down their territory, making it harder for them to find food. It can already be helpful to simply refrain from illuminating the entire garden and deliberately create unlit areas, where these creatures can move unhindered. Such a play of light and shadow adds depth to your garden, making it look more enticing.
3. Light on the porch or under the roof overhang
The porch or an overhanging roof are great installation locations for direct orientation lighting with recessed luminaires if you want to bring light to the outside of your home. Circumferential lighting creates a basic brightness all around the outside of your home, while highlighting the façades. The whole property appears upgraded, as the colour and external structure is displayed to best effect. Beyond pure aesthetics, there are many practical aspects for light all around your home – and it is a good deterrent for burglars as well.
Once you are done for the night and leave the garden or patio to move back inside, the light should be switched off. Trees, shrubbery and flower beds need the darkness of night to thrive. And if you won’t need to go back outside, you should also switch of any additional footpath lighting.
If you do have footpaths that need lighting up at night, you should use luminaires with an integrated motion sensor, which will switch on when someone approaches and automatically switch off again a few seconds later. A more responsible use of outdoor lighting is good for the environment – and also for your wallet.
